Thursday, December 24, 2009

Be happy -- or merry

It's that time of year again, and I've been thinking about this whole "Happy Holidays" versus "Merry Christmas" issue.

Apparently many people I know feel strongly about it. I, however, don't. I really don't see the harm in wishing someone glad tidings in whatever form.

You can tell me "Happy Holidays," "Merry Christmas," "Season's Greetings" or "Happy Hanukkah" (although that one would be slightly strange since I'm not Jewish). As long as it said with good intentions and you mean it, we're good. If you choose to say nothing at all, I'm also OK with that. My policy is you shouldn't be forced to say anything you don't want to say, and you should only say what you mean.

If someone wants to wish me good will, I'll take it. It really doesn't matter how he or she says it.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

A Thanksgiving request

Sunday I was building 1A at the newspaper when we got word of breaking news. I began reworking the page as more details came in.

There will be four empty chairs at somebody's Thanksgiving table today. A father, a mother and their two tiny children, 4 and 2, were found dead from apparent carbon monoxide poisoning. They didn't have electricity and were using a borrowed generator to stay warm. As the story progressed into Monday, we learned the lone survivor of this young family was a 6-year-old who had been staying with her grandmother during the weekend.

On Wednesday, our reporters covered two fatal accidents -- two more empty chairs in the blink of an eye.

In my job we see some good, but we also see a lot of sad and bad. I don't want to be a downer on this holiday, but I want to make a request because you are all important to me. Please be careful, please seek help if you need it, please take care of each other and please hug the ones you love.

I wish you all a blessed and safe Thanksgiving.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Food for thought

A conversation via text message:
Me: The CEO of Freedom is resigning to become the CEO of Playboy. Thought you'd appreciate that.
Him: That's f***ing cool!!!!!!!
Me: Porn is probably more stable work than papers right now.
Him: And pays a hell of a lot more as well ...

Thursday, March 5, 2009

What this country needs is

a little more common sense, a little less panic and a whole lot more personal responsibility.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Mom's good advice

At a very rough time in my life, my mom sent me a card with these words: "Don't forget, you are stronger than you think you are." And she was right.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Plink, plunk

I'm playing with answering prompts at www.plinky.com to get over some writer's block.

When I started using the Internet

I learned a few computer basics in high school and college, but didn't get online until I met my future husband. He had a smoking hot Tandy TRS-100 (an example of this modern technology: http://oldcomputers.net/index.html) Seems like we spent days on the local BBS chat. We really thought we were computer geeks when we got a Tandy desktop with external 300 baud modem. And when we bumped up to 1200 baud, we were hauling butt! Now I whine that the cable modem is soooo slow.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

What is wrong with people?

This story about an elderly man freezing to death in his own home infuriated me. Locally, a cancer patient on disability had her water cut off over $26. Yet they take a $1 "donation" on my water bill for parks. Where is the compassion and common decency?

Friday, January 23, 2009

Not enough in American newspapers

Newspaper claims suspect transformed into a goat. Maybe this explains why newspapers are struggling in the U.S. We need more magic -- or maybe more goats.